Monday, July 23, 2007

LETTER OF THE WEEK

TWO STORIES IN TWO-STATE SOLUTION

I WISH Ed O'Loughlin would get the whole story and not just part of it ("Israel selects friends and foes", The Age, 21/7).

What has been omitted is that Hamas makes it clear that its goal is to annihilate the state of Israel and to replace it with an Islamist state, with the financial and military support of Iran and Syria. Secular Fatah, on the other hand, is showing willingness to compromise in order to achieve a more equitable two-state solution.

To advocate the support for Islamist Hamas just because it was democratically elected and to downplay the threat it poses to both secular Palestinians and Israelis is not going to help the forces of peace. Rather it prolongs the suffering and the bloodshed.

While the hardship that a blockade can cause to its population is of concern, how is it possible for Gaza to be completely isolated yet able to import plenty of arms but not food?

Rachel Merhav, Bentleigh

4 comments:

Wilbur Post said...

Naturally, the Age couldn't bring itself to publish a letter supporting peace between Israel and the Palestinians without a contrary view from a Hamas sympathiser.

Immediately, below Ms. Merhav's letter came this fawning piece from Dora McPhee which throws no new light on the situation and merely repeats the old Hamas line of spin -

Divide and conquer

THE Age and Ed O'Loughlin are to be congratulated for reporting the appalling machinations of the US and Israel in contriving to once more force the hand of the Palestinians in their long struggle for justice and an end to their occupation and dispossession.

This is a pure divide-and-conquer strategy that has totally undermined democratic principles and rewarded the corrupt and lawless elements the Palestinians were trying to rid themselves of.

The attempt to install a quisling leadership through bribes and punitive measures will fail, with disastrous consequences for all.

Pushing the Palestinians to fight each other may help Israel to complete its land theft and help it justify its apartheid system, but what is being put in place now will come back to haunt them.

Dora McPhee, Melbourne


Ms. McPhee simply reiterated Mr. Ed's original report in her own words and the Age forgot to tell us (or did she forget to tell the Age?) that she is closely connected to an organisation called "Women for Palestine".

Now you can add her to the list of those who support the fascist, genocidal and antisemitic Hamas regime and who get a voice in the Age.

Anonymous said...

An excellent response to the execrable Ms. McPhee in today's Age letters:-

Palestine support?

AS A member of Australians For Palestine, it is really not surprising that Dora McPhee places her support of Hamas ahead of Fatah (Letters, 23/7).

She provides intellectual support for Palestinian terrorists and continues to lie about Israel's "apartheid" and "land theft".

In case Ms McPhee didn't notice, Israel withdrew from Gaza in 2005, so there is little "land theft" there. Ms McPhee's dream of a democratically run Hamastan is incredible: Hamas dreams of ridding Palestine of secular Palestinians and annihilating Israel.

If this is what it means to be an Australian For Palestine, then it is profoundly worrying.

Philip Ioannou, Paddington, NSW

Anonymous said...

Dora McPhee claims she is an artist.

I can't imagine an artist having so much hate inside her.

(Jen)

Anonymous said...

This one in today's Sunday Age should qualify this week -

The cartoon that accompanied your article on Singaporean investment in Australia "Eaten by Singapore", showing an Asian lion literally devouring Australia (with chopsticks), was disgusting and reminiscent of 1930s racist cartoons.

For a newspaper that has continually accused John Howard of racist politics, you should be doubly ashamed.

DANIEL LEWIS, Rushcutters Bay